


Blood, Tears, Dust.

by vilequeen



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Gore, Bloodplay, Cannibalism, Dubious Consent, F/M, Obsession, Rough Sex, Violence, i'll add more as it applies, oh boy this gonna get good
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:50:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11038407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vilequeen/pseuds/vilequeen
Summary: Two years after the Baker family went missing, Jessica Radcliffe decides to make the trip back home to say goodbye. But Lucas is waiting and he hasn't forgotten her promise. She is going to be made apart of the new family whether she likes it or not. Will Jessica fight to escape the Bakers or let her feelings for Lucas accept this twisted life?Prequel to this series: When We Were YoungOtherwise some of things might not make sense.





	1. Homecoming

Jessica fucking hated Lucas Baker. He had always been such an ill tempered asshole who could find something negative to any positive situation. But ever since she had left for college Lucas had begun making a habit of guilting Jessica as much as possible, or trying to piss her off until she couldn't see straight. He would bitch and nag and demand to know who she was with when she wasn't in class or in her dorm room, questioning whether or not she cared about him. Some nights when they really went at it the neighboring tenants would call campus police. At first they had thought someone was being hurt but eventually everyone within hearing range had gotten tired of Jessica arguing with her long distance boyfriend, so they called security.  
Lucas Baker could be such a needy insecure little douchebag.   
But fuck she had loved him. And when he disappeared he had left this ragged bitter hole where her heart was supposed to be. 

Four years ago Jessica Radcliffe had left Dulvey, Louisiana for a fruitful college experience in Florida. At first it had been a point of contention between herself and Lucas. He had completely believed that she was ditching him for a new life now that high school was over. That wasn't true in the least so she'd gone down to the Baker plantation to confront him on his bullshit. And like any two stubborn teenagers with unarticulated feelings they had fought, fucked and forgiven each other.   
When the dust settled Jessica had given Lucas her solemn oath that she would come back and save his sorry ass from Louisiana once she got on her feet. After that he had been more accepting with the idea of her leaving.   
However being apart hadn't been as easy as they thought it would be, separation began turning them into jealous pricks who spent way too much time on their phones either arguing or talking late into the night like they used to.   
Jessica always visited the Bakers on break, talked to Lucas three times a day on the phone and was in constant texting communication with him from the moment she woke up until she went to bed. Zoe kept her up to date on the usual family happenings which, as far as Jessica was concerned, nothing new was going on at the Baker residence.   
Shouting matches, scuffles and overall unease around the dinner table. Normal family stuff.

That is until the night of October 10th, the last time Jessica or anyone else heard from them. 

She could recall it with perfect clarity, having relived her end of that night a hundred times in the last two years. 

Jessica was in her dorm watching the rain beat against the bedroom window, she was fiddling anxiously with her cellphone popping it between two hands. Her roommate Kenzi had gone out with some of her friends and despite numerous attempts at trying to get her to come along Jessica politely declined. It was nothing personal, she just didn't like any of them, even Miss Prom Queen 2012 McKenzie Tanner.   
Besides it was 9:44pm meaning Lucas was likely up in his barn nook surfing the web and getting into online arguments with anyone who would take the bait. He was a trolling little bastard who got off on making complete strangers pissed. Lucas thought it was funny as all hell and made sure he sent her screenshots of the good ones.  
Jessica waited until she saw Kenzi's car pull out of the student driveway before she tore the window shades together and stripped off all her clothes, angling herself into a seductive pose for the camera on her phone.  
**Click.**   
_Sent._  
Lucas replied less than thirty seconds later.

**Lucasshole:** shit woman dont send that shit rn!!!  
**Jessy Jane:** aw why not   
**Lucasshole:** at table with my folks n bitchy  
**Jessy Jane:** really? it's almost 10 wtf thought they'd be asleep by now  
**Lucasshole:** na shit goin on  
**Jessy Jane:** what shit is everything ok  
**Lucasshole:** ya no that storm that hit  
**Jessy Jane:** sure. was just thunder and lightening here  
**Lucasshole:** well goody fuk 4 u cuz it sucked balls in dulvy  
**Lucasshole:** saw sumthin weird on boat. pa went out 2 check it. he found a woman in the swamp

Jessica was in the middle of putting her clothes back on when she read his message. With her pajama shorts down around her ankles she stood there in total shock, jaw hanging open, rereading his words over and over. A woman? Just floating there for five whole days? Jessica fell down onto her bed and did her best to multitask texting and hiking up her shorts at the same time. 

**Jessy Jane:** WHAT?  
**Jessy Jane:** is she ok?  
**Lucasshole:** yeah bitch was half dead floatin away from a wrecked cargo tanker  
**Jessy Jane:** lucas I feel like you aren't taking this seriously  
**Lucasshole:** what idc bitch was knocked out cold but she breathin  
**Jessy Jane:** you are such an asshole  
**Jessy Jane:** did jack call the cops?  
**Lucasshole:** nah he tryin 2 b a hero or sumthin  
**Lucasshole:** put her in zoes trailer she is fukin pisssssed

That sounded like Jack. He was the type of man to pull over in the pouring rain and help a complete stranger with a flat tire. However that wasn't the man he was behind closed doors. More than once Jessica had seen him verbally and sometimes physically abuse his family. Lucas always got the worst of it from him though, Marguerite had been Zoe's biggest adversary. For a while Jack would keep his temper if Jessica was around cause she was a guest. Once she'd ended up becoming more apart of the family that changed.  
Laying down across the bed she decided to press Lucas for more details. He was pretending to be indifferent about the whole situation but this was exciting as hell. Nothing ever happened in Dulvey.

**Jessy Jane:** still think you should call the cops and report it  
**Lucasshole:** fuck that i wanna b n my room getting yo pics but i gotta b here since its a big deal and all  
**Jessy Jane:** kind of is you know but seriously I hope this chick is fine  
**Lucasshole:** cant tell on account she was soaked n dirty but bitch looks cute  
**Jessy Jane:** really lucas  
**Jessy Jane:** I meant fine as in not about to die in zoe's trailer not whether you thought she was hot  
**Lucasshole:** aw u jealous babycakes?

Jessica didn't want to admit it but it kind of did get under her skin. She knew Lucas was fucking around with her but it wasn't everyday some woman washed up in the bayou needing to be rescued. What if she was good looking and pushed herself on him? Or if she and Lucas got into it again so he decided to get some revenge? 

**Jessy Jane:** no  >:(  
**Jessy Jane:** just hope she don't wake up and fall in love with the son of the guy who saved her  
**Lucasshole:** she had a ring on  
**Lucasshole:** no chance anyways  
**Lucasshole:** so u comin down soon

The first week of October had just passed and Jessica was already packed for fall break. It was a little early to have done so and whenever she needed to grab new clothes she'd have to rummage around her suitcase. But she had Thanksgiving and Christmas break following right after so she might as well live out of it for now.  
That was three weeks Jessica would get to spend at her home away from home. It would be nice to be back in Dulvey as crazy as that sounded. She missed Lucas obviously but Jessica was also looking forward to Marguerite's cooking and smoking weed in Zoe's trailer so that all Jack's awful dinner time jokes were at least a little funny.

**Jessy Jane:** yep in two weeks. i think i will dress up this year for halloween  
**Lucass:** sexy nurse???  
**Lucass:** na b a zombie ill do your blood  
**Jessy Jane:** lol MAYBE  
**Jessy Jane:** too many real zombies around. might get shot

Nobody liked to talk about the crazy shit going on around the world these days. Jessica couldn't remember what it was like before Raccoon City happened. That alone would have changed the the way people live forever but over the years more and more places around the world succumb to biohazardous incidents. Zombies, monsters, corrupt bio-organic corporations, those things weren't imaginary anymore.   
_We might not even know about all of them. Only the ones that the government couldn't hide._  
Dressing up like a zombie or creature out of a horror movie got at least a dozen people shot every year. And could you blame them? You could be living in the middle of a quiet suburban neighborhood and not know something was up until your poor sick granny mutated and ripped your damn face off.

**Lucasshole:** woah   
**Lucasshole:** jessy  
**Jessy Jane:** lucas?  
**Lucasshole:** pa found another one, a kid  
**Jessy Jane:** omg poor thing is she alive?  
**Lucasshole:** fuckin guess so shes gonna b n my old room  
**Lucasshole:** fuckin hate her already  
**Jessy Jane:** call a hospital!   
**Lucasshole:** u been outta the country 2 long everything is done by the people here  
**Jessy Jane:** don't be a jerk  
**Lucasshole:** ;)

Two people? Were there more? Why was there a child on a cargo ship? Jessica began mass texting Lucas more questions about the woman and child. She didn't expect him to know the answers but at some point one of them would wake up and spill the beans.  
Jessica waited five minutes.   
Nothing.   
Another ten.   
Lucas still hadn't replied.  
_Maybe something happened. The chick could have woken up or Jack is having him help with the boat. They might think there are more people alive out there._  
When an hour passed and she'd still heard nothing Jessica began to panic. She tried to call Lucas's phone but it rang until his obscene answer machine picked up. So she called Zoe only to get the same result. Something was really fucking wrong.

**Jessy Jane:** hey asshole where'd you go  
**Jessy Jane:** Lucas. Helloooo?  
**Jessy Jane:** hey dipshit respond you are freaking me out  
**Jessy Jane:** if this is your idea of a joke it isn't funny  
**Jessy Jane:** that woman could be some psychopath. I keep imagining her stabbing you guys.  
**Jessy Jane:** Lucas?

Jessica had stared at that fucking winking smiley face for two years. It was the last thing Lucas had ever sent her. It just stared back, mocking her, because of course the last thing she would get from him was a piece of shit grin.  
That fall Jessica still took a bus back to Dulvey to see if the news reports were true. It was like she had to see it for herself before she was able to accept what was happening. The the Bakers were gone. Lucas was gone.

Jessica ended up renting a cheap motel room in town and driving down to the Baker's residence every day, staying on the property until the cops made her leave. They refused to let her past the front gate and knew better than to let her out of their sight. The one time they had Jessica made it halfway to the guest house before they hauled her back to her car.  
Most of the police officers knew who she was and felt bad for her. This was a small town where everyone knew everyone else and when something happened they all felt it. But not so much as her.  
The truth was the Baker's weren't exactly beloved. Jack and Marguerite were quiet folks who kept to themselves and Zoe had maintained the same three friends for as long as Jessica known her. Unfortunately Zoe's friends knew about as much as Jessica.   
And Lucas, well he was notorious for raising hell. The bad seed they'd called him. No one except Jessica had even cared he was missing.

So for seven days and nights Jessica Radcliffe sat against the same old tree and waited for one of the officers to tell her whether the investigators inside the house had found anything. The cop's name was Blake Shelley and they had gone to school together. Blake had played football and for a time Zoe had been crazy about him. Jessica knew he pitied her but at the very least he was making the effort to help. Blake told the investigators about her text messages with Lucas in hopes that it would make a difference. One of them had taken interest in the conversation with Lucas but there were no reports of any woman or child missing in the area nor any large tankers that took a course near the bayou. To look into these baseless leads would have been a strain on their resources, or so she had been told.

Jessica was never allowed to go back inside the house, she never got to say goodbye to a family who'd treated her like one of their own. On the night she had gone back to Florida Jessica locked herself in the bathroom and cried for the first time.

That was two years ago. Dulvey wouldn't have forgotten the Bakers, it was still too fresh a subject of conversation. No doubt old women with nothing better to do would swear they saw the ghost of one of the Bakers shambling around the forest or that they heard screams when they passed the property. Kids would be daring each other to sneak in and spend the night for shit and giggles. All the stupid crap she and Lucas would have done had it been anyone else in that God forsaken town.  
But two years was a long time to be missing. Enough that investigators had given up looking for the family of four entirely. There was no sign of foul play so maybe they just up and left? That was one theory Jessica had read online. Another told of the crazy son who butchered his family, cutting them into tiny pieces and feeding them to the alligators, before he disappeared.   
_God I hate that one._   
Lucas had little love for his family but he would never do something so depraved.

Pulling up at the edge of the Baker residence, Jessica got out of her car and stared up at the vacant estate. There were no more police officers to keep her away, no more nosy onlookers that asked how she was doing expecting breadcrumbs of information to twist into gossip at Sunday church. Just Jessica and her memories.

The summer wind blew through her hair causing it to whip against her face. She probably should have cut it but after spending two years too depressed to take care of herself hair length was the last thing on her mind. It went well past her shoulder blades in a coal black curtain, long enough that it liked to catch under her arms when she put on a lazy sports bra. Right now the Louisiana heat punished her for it, tendrils clung to her exposed skin like leeches.   
Jessica left her car beneath the canopy of trees and trekked her way across the wet mass of dead leaves towards the front gate. No one had walked across them in two years. No one around to rake them up. If kids were sneaking onto the property they probably did so by going through the forest.  
Jessica almost expected Jack's old truck to be parked closer on in by the gate. It wasn't, prompting her to wonder what happened to the vehicles when their owners went missing. The world had informed Jessica that saying the Bakers were 'dead' was the appropriate term now. No one missing this long would be alive. But there were quite a few hidden passages in the Baker residence, maybe by some fucking miracle one of them was hiding in there alive.

The gate ahead was locked tight with a heavy bolted chain. Jessica grabbed the iron bars and rattled them, aware that it wouldn't be enough to make the chains fall away. But she had to try anyways, right? She leaned in towards the keypad and pressed the six digit code that used to unlocked the gate.   
_Of course the power is cut dumbass. Looks like I'm going in through the guest house._  
The Bakers had rarely entertained guests in the time she'd known them. Lucas and Zoe hadn't been allowed inside the adjacent house even after they had gotten older, not unless it was to do chores. The unused rooms sure did collect a fuck ton of dust. But Jack and Marguerite kept it tidy anyways, as if one day someone would wash up on their property and need a place to stay.  
_That did happen,_ she reminded herself, _and then everything went to hell._

Jessica followed the path through the forest that led to the guest house, daydreaming about having walked it years ago. Was it sad that she still remembered all the little clandestine things about them? From lesser known paths to hidden rooms and everything in between?   
She didn't get the chance to decide. A horrid stench hit Jessica like a boot to the head. She clamped her hands over her nose involuntarily and fought the urge to vomit. Something had died nearby and was baking in the summer heat.   
She'd had no interest finding whatever it was emitting the smell but the carcass lay in wait up ahead forcing her to pass it to get to where she wanted to go.   
“Oh man what the hell?”  
Laying there in her way was the mutilated corpse of a large animal. It looked like the remains of a cow cleaved in two. The open end of it sat facing up revealing the bones and innards for all to see. As disgusted and horrified as Jessica felt, two distinct realizations popped into her head. For one, there was nothing in the forest that could have cleanly sliced the cow in two. There should have been bite marks in the flesh or other pieces of it laying around nearby. The body of the cow had been killed by a human. Which brought her to the next thing she noticed: the flies had already descended upon the remains, yes. But the kill was fresh. The organs were still intact.   
_Nothing has come to pick at it, not even the crows._

Jessica's mind filled with images of the woman found near the cargo accident. No one had told her what she had looked like or if she'd even really existed but inside her head Jessica envisioned this half corpse creature with purpled flesh rising from the swamp muck to kill her.  
_Get your shit together Jess. It's just a dead cow. The Bakers had tons of them...two years ago. Goddammit if they took the cars they wouldn't have left the fucking farm animals!_  
Somehow Jessica felt closer to an explanation about what happened now than the cops had when the scene was fresh.  
It occurred to her that someone might be staying at the plantation. Squatters, maybe drug attics. People like that did some crazy shit. Fortunately she'd been smart enough to bring a switchblade. Jessica kept it snug in her pocket just within reach. Anyone who tried to fuck with her would take one look at her, some punk bitch in a crop top, and think she was an easy target. But they'd end up with a knife in their gut, if they were lucky. She always aimed for the face. 

Jessica turned away from the carcass and came face to face with what had likely happened to the rest of the body. The confidence she'd just built up went sour in her gut.  
“Oh-oh Christ.” She doubled over and emptied her stomach of the cheap diner breakfast she'd consumed earlier that day. Her mind tried to compile a rational explanation for the fucked up thing it was being made to process. Lurching up one final bile induced gag she twisted her head around and looked at it again.   
_Nope, still fucked up._

The eyeless cow's head hung off of ropes stretched around two trees that were sitting on higher ground. Threaded in a circular fashion around the head were anywhere from seven to ten animal legs with hooves at the end. Jessica didn't know if the contorted limbs belong to a cow or a horse nor did she care to count the exact amount that wreathed the grotesque creation. Hanging alongside from various branches were rounded blades that belong to a circular saw. If the half cow behind her wasn't a sign something was fucked up then this was. Jessica removed her knife and snapped it out the handle.   
The rotting display blocked her path however there was a small space below she thought she might be able to crawl under. Jessica didn't like the idea of going near that thing, it was some bayou voodoo shit, but before she could convince herself to take a chance and go back to climb the metal gate, she dropped down on all fours and wedged through.  
Jessica made the decision to jog the rest of the way. The old guest house was already within view and shit was she relieved beyond measure to see it. Jessica hopped down the short drop, gripping her knife a little tighter, and stepped into view of the house.

It looked just like she'd remembered it. Except for mother nature taking its course everything was still there. The bench swing she and Lucas had tried swinging as high as they could, rattling the frame so hard that it nearly came out of the ground. The flat board Marguerite had asked Jack to put down between the porch and the ground so she didn't keep ruining her nice Sunday shoes every time it rained.   
_Jack always said he was gonna fill in the dip. Guess he never did._  
Jessica wanted to sit on the swing and let herself deal with her loss, being here dredged up all those feelings she thought she'd locked away, but the immediate danger kept her from letting her guard down. The tears could wait until she found out what the fuck had killed that cow.  
She ventured through the porch and stopped in front of the back door. Her knuckle went white as she carefully turned the knob and pushed it open.   
_Well at least it isn't locked._

Stepping into the long hall Jessica shut the door behind her quietly and tiptoed towards the kitchen. The cabinet up ahead had a chain lock on it but this one was far more rusted over than the one on the outside gate. Perhaps Jack had locked it up before the night they disappeared?

The kitchen was an absolute mess. Marguerite would have never in her life let things get this bad. It looked similar to the old house by the swamp, in absolute disarray but everything that had been there when the storm hit remained in its original place.   
Jessica went still and listened for the slightest sound to indicate whether or not someone was here. The wood groaned and the wind blew against the windows but the Baker residence was at peace.  
_Maybe the freaks are out shooting up and looking for another farm animal to slaughter._  
Alone or not Jessica kept the knife in hand, easing her prowling posture and allowing herself to leisurely move through the ruined kitchen. It smelled awful but, thankfully, it had the reek of old food instead of death. The drawers were locked and the cupboards held only musty cups. However there on the kitchen table beside the corroded stew pot sat a newspaper dated for three weeks ago.  
The headline read: _**12 missing since 2014. Dulvey, Louisiana dubbed haunted by tourists.**_  
Jessica remembered Lucas telling her about Oliver, the little bully kid from grade school who disappeared one day out of the blue. At the time she had tried to be supportive and say good riddance. Now that story made her feel strange.   
_Then there was Eric Banon who went missing our sophomore year. Star football player, bound and determined to get accepted to a good college thanks to his throwing arm. He disappeared right before playoffs._ Jessica put the newspaper down and ran her fingers over her shorts to get rid of the overwhelming dread she experienced by touching it. _How could eighteen people go missing in less than twenty years without a single shred of evidence? People don't just vanish out of thin air._  
Jessica hadn't reconnected with anyone in town when she arrived the night before but she could rightfully assume that all of Dulvey was in a frenzy about this. It could have been why the police dropped the Baker case. They weren't the only ones who'd disappeared.  
_Dulvey has become haunted ground, devouring anyone who trespasses. And it's only getting more hungry._

Out in the hall by the front door Jack's great uncle's standing grandfather clock had fallen flat atop debris. Jessica went up the stairs first, pressing the button to the magic staircase that led to the top floor but the power was out here too. She should have known. Next she headed back down and continued through the hall at a quickened pace before stopping cold and taking a few graceful steps back. The side room where Jack had kept emergency supplies had voodoo dolls hanging from the ceiling. A couple dozen hay figures shaped like people dangling like lynched bodies. The door to the right had been boarded shut in haste.  
Jessica tried not to imagine why that had been done, or when. Had the Bakers tried to hide in there as a last ditch effort?  
Jessica cut one of the dolls down and examined it closely. There were not strands of hair woven into it or needles puncturing the husk's body.   
_Tweakers or psychopaths. Maybe some assholes dressed the house up to freak out anyone who tried to sneak in._  
That theory made her feel better but not great. Her brain was trying to minimize possible danger, a natural reaction to the unknown. But underestimating the situation could get her killed. Jessica dropped the doll onto the floor hoping no one out in the world had just shattered into pieces.

Back in the hall she gave herself a once over in the filthy hallway mirror, screwing her face around so she didn't look so damn scared. Jessica's gray eyes stared back almost colorless from her blurry reflection. Humidity had already caused her hair to frizz so she hastily smoothed it down and thought about how stupid she was being for worrying her hair. If she wasn't alone then it didn't matter if squatters thought she looked nice or not.  
_I want to feel like I look good, she told herself, fuck everyone else._

Jessica decided to go into the sitting room first before going on to the other section of the house. She remembered that it led to a hallway with a bathroom, a library and a door to the basement. The basement tunneled beneath the two houses and without power would be pitch black. She'd have to brave it if she wanted onto the main property, but due to her innate fear of the dark Jessica was willing to put it off for a moment longer.  
_Well I do need to check all the rooms,_ she reminded herself, _that way no one can come up behind me._

Jessica opened the door without caution, she'd been alone this whole time after all. If someone had been here they'd of heard her right? She wasn't that stealthy.  
But Jessica had to stifle a scream when she caught a glimpse of a man across the room. He was hunched over an old television watching a video, the lit numbers on the VHS machine told her he was one minute and twenty two seconds into the video.   
Whoever he was he hadn't heard her come in, too engrossed in the video. Jessica used this to her advantage and scanned the room to make certain he was the only one there before idling herself closer, knife poised if he tried to run at her. She felt adrenaline pumping in time with her heart, keeping her senses at peak performance. Jessica had taken a class on human anatomy in college, she was aware the feats the human body could perform with enough juice.   
_Yeah but if this guy is a druggie he won't even feel my knife sticking out of his face._  
From what she could tell the man, shadowed by the television light, was watching some fucked up snuff film. Jessica watched as a blonde woman tripped into a spring trap and- _fucking hell_ -her limps were torn out of their sockets.   
_If this fucker gets off on dismemberment I'll fucking give him his own cock in a gift basket._  
Jessica's boot pressed down on a loose board causing a loud creak to fill the room just as she was getting close enough to attack him from behind. The man whirled around, eyes wide and animalistic, and threw up his arms. She braced for an attack that never came. A moment passed where they just stared, expecting the other one to make a move.

“You're not one of them are you?” He didn't look like a drug addict, not that he couldn't be. But most of the ones Jessica had met didn't wear wool button up sweaters and khaki pants. He was round and stout, Jessica was 5'4 and he couldn't have been more than that in shoes. The man sported a bushy mustache and balding head, the hair he did have wrapped around the back of his head but sat barren on top. “Are you the one from the phone?”  
Jessica was clueless. “What...? No I...Who the fuck are you?” She held her knife up a little higher to emphasize that she had one.  
“My name is Craig Doyle.” As soon as he saw her weapon he waved his hands back and forth frantically. “I-I-I'm not one of them.”  
“One of who?”  
His expression became confused, shocked that she genuinely didn't know what he was going on about. “We need to get out of here. They're crazy okay? Fucking bat shit! They took my Nadine and now...oh God...they turned her into a monster.”  
Craig pointed to the screen with tears rolling down his reddened cheeks. Jessica watched the remaining seconds of the video as some type of blurred black mass came into view. The tape was distorted but it looked as if the lumbering creature had knelt down to eat the torn limbs of the woman.  
“That's her...that thing...my Nadine.” When the video dissolved into static Craig shifted suddenly. He balled his fists and showed Jessica a mouthful of short angry teeth. “They'll pay! You hear me? I'll make them pay!”   
He stepped into the light of the TV exposing the blood stains that covered the front of his dirty clothing. Jessica remembered the dismembered animals and took a step back.  
“Did you kill those cows? Were you the one who set up that fucked up thing outside?”  
“What? No! Of course not!” Craig came towards her to which Jessica retreated around the coffee table to the left. They circled one another and the man kept yelling at her that he hadn't done anything and _he_ was the one in danger. But she was so fucking afraid of ending up like the woman from that tape that Jessica whisked the switchblade in his direction each time Craig tried stepping closer. She was now standing between the television and the red chair with the man whom she suspected was a lunatic only inches from the fuse box. 

Jessica was so dead set on him that she didn't hear the secret panel behind her open.  
Craig's eyes looked past her and widened in terror. His mouth opened, blubbering incoherently until two solid words emerged from the muck: “Behind you!”  
She smiled ruefully. _I'm not falling for that shithead._  
But when Jessica took a step backwards her body collided with something solid. Something of flesh and bone. A hoarse chuckle tickled her bare shoulder, Jessica responded by whimpering softly into the still air. She could feel the third person in the room breath on her skin and the feverish rise and fall of their chest along her spine. The panel at the bottom of the wall flashed in Jessica's mind, one of the many passages set in the house.   
Slowly she turned her head enough to see a hand hanging limp behind her. The pale fingers began to flex when their owner knew she'd seen him. Jessica pivoted to face the man behind her, knife ready. Hell no was she going down without a fight  
But then she saw his face and felt her whole world shift out of control. She couldn't move her body nor could she stop staring at his wide toothy grin. Her heart fought within the chambers of her chest threatening to explode. Both hands began trembled and her knees ached to buckle.  
_This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. He couldn't be alive._

“Lucas?”


	2. Welcome to the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucas Baker has risen from the dead, or so it seems. And oh, does he have some secrets to share. But first he wants to introduce Jessica to his new sister.

_“Lucas?”_

He was supposed to be dead. No one had seen or heard from him or his family in almost two years. Yet here he was alive and breathing hard against her face. Standing mere inches away from her sending Jessica's mind spiraling for an explanation.  
_He's not real. I'm hallucinating._  
Had it been true it would not have surprised her, Jessica had felt on the verge of a psychotic breakdown for a while now. The whole reason she'd come home to Dulvey in the first place was to get some closure so that way, maybe, she could put her pain to bed. That's what people did, right? Mourned and healed and moved on with their lives. But if Jessica had wanted to move forward she wouldn't have come back to the house, and she knew it. This was never about closure but rather tearing the wound deeper.  
The lingering image of Lucas Baker hovered in front of Jessica like a ghost. He was three shades paler than he used to be. Everyone in the country had a tan except for Lucas who preferred lamp light to sunlight. When Jessica wasn't around he stayed locked up in his little attic where he'd hide for hours at a time. It drove Jack and Marguerite crazy.  
The skin beneath his eyes had gone dark and sunken as though he wasn't sleeping. Jessica felt the urge to reach out and touch the shadows above his cheekbones in the faintest hope that she could make them go away. And why couldn't she? Jessica had a knack for soothing the beast inside of Lucas.  
The hair that sat on his head was wild and untamed. It mirrored the wide and maniacal gleam in his pale eyes. Jessica had seen that look before when they played their games. Predatory in nature with a hint of severely unhinged delight.

The moment his gaze settled on her his eyes changed. She swore she saw a flash of something softer, familiar. Did hallucinations emote? Could they feed off their host's feelings and react accordingly?  
“Jessy Jane.” He murmured, light as a feather.  
_Could they talk?_  
The knife slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor beside them, forgotten. Jessica's hands shook involuntarily as she reached forward and laid them flat against his chest, one nail picking absently at the letters on his hoodie. Jessica shuddered. Lucas was real. He was right here and so very, very alive. There was no way she could make up the rise and fall of his chest in her head or the way the side of his mouth twitched upward into a knowing smile. All at once her heart both soared into her throat and ached inside her chest.  
Lucas's bony fingers slid over the top of Jessica's hands, the shit eating grin that she had missed so desperately spread completely over his face masking the affectionate smile he'd given her moments ago.  
She couldn't command her lips to form words. There were a millions things she wanted to say, to ask him, but right now Jessica was drinking in the realization that he wasn't a corpse at the bottom of the swamp. Lucas Baker had been alive all along waiting for her.

Their precious reunion was interrupted by Craig who ran up beside them and grabbed Jessica's knife up off the floor. He held it out in front of himself awkwardly, possibly because he had never felt the need to defend himself until now. The daring maneuver had been the extent of Craig's bravery however. The small man hunched his shoulders and shrank back like a scolded dog. Reluctantly Jessica turned her face away from Lucas, hoping he didn't disappear again the moment she stopped looking at him, and glared back at Craig. His beady eyes darted between Lucas and herself expecting one of them to attack.  
_So he sees him too. Oh fuck, thank God._

“Y-You're one of them! I should have known. You people are fucked up!”  
Lucas tutted Craig as he let Jessica's hands go. He brushed past her and stood between Craig and herself, shielding Jessica from harm. “Shouldn't talk ta my girl like that. I've made heads roll fer less.”  
“C'mon then you stringy shit, I'll gut you like the pig fucker you are!”  
Lucas craned his head and smiled back at Jessica with a playful glint in his eye. “Ya hear that babycakes? He called ya a pig.”  
She wished she knew what the fuck was going on. Lucas, the _not-dead-actually-standing-here-Lucas_ was acting like nothing was amiss. Like years hadn't passed where she thought he was dead or worse. But then, he did look dead. Lucas was more gaunt than he'd been, reminiscent of a fresh corpse. Jessica started to suspect he'd become an addict and that this interaction was some kind of deal gone wrong. Craig was too tame looking to be a drug dealer so she assumed he'd come to Lucas to score something and things went to hell.  
_Where better to meet your dealer than an abandoned house covered in animal guts?_  
None of this was adding up. But by default she took Lucas's side, he was her best friend whatever the circumstances. No calls, no texts, no signs of life in two years. Yet here they were, Jessica and Lucas. Two misfit peas in a pod.  
And Craig the outsider who had taken her knife and pointed it at them.

Jessica pushed past Lucas and stared the other man down. She'd been expecting something much worse than him to be lurking around the farm. She figured she could handle him armed or not.  
“Gimme back my knife asshole. Then you can leave.” Lucas hummed a little _nuh-uh_ from behind but she ignored him. “Just toss it down between us and fuck off. I won't stab you when you turn your back. Scouts honor.”  
Craig looked past Jessica to the pale man behind her. It was Lucas that he didn't trust to show his back to, not her. Why was he so afraid of him? There were times that Lucas could get a little violent, no denying he had a bad temper. But Craig seemed to have an easier time watching that gruesome VHS than he did being in the same room with Lucas.  
Craig tossed the switchblade down and raised his hands up into the air as a sign of surrender. Jessica stepped in and reached down for the knife when a rough hand tangled itself in her hair and yanked her backwards. By the time she'd realized what was happening Craig had her in a tight hold, fingers gnawing into her scalp while the other hand twisted her arm back.

“What the fuck!” She howled, vigorously twisting her body to break his grasp. Craig may have been stubby and out of shape but he had her arm bent at an excruciating angle. Every movement sent shock waves of pain radiating through Jessica's body, she stopped struggling out of the fear of breaking her own arm. Jessica's free hand clawed back at the fingers tearing the hair from her scalp.  
Lucas moved forward without a word, the amusement in his face gone, but Jessica threw out her hand to stop him. He froze mid-step and held her eyes. She could practically smell fear radiating off of Craig, the pungent scent sweat and blood. From the look on Lucas's face so could he, but whatever game he had been playing ended abruptly the moment Craig grabbed her.  
“Come any closer and I'll snap her neck.” Craig was in no position to break anyone's neck although her right arm was in peril of a similar fate. Jessica mouthed to Lucas to trust her. Whether or not he did didn't mattered because he listened. He looked mildly curious as to what she had planned. And angry, very fucking angry.  
“Ah shucks C-Man! Didn't yo mama teach ya it ain't nice to hurt girls?”  
Craig's grip on her tightened. Jessica let a guttural cry rip from her throat. “If she's one of you then she is hardly a girl.”  
Jessica stayed quiet as he and Lucas bantered back and forth, counting the ways she could turn the table on her abductor. While Craig was distracted she played out several scenarios in her head and how they would pan out, deciding on the one that would hurt this fucker the most.

Throwing back her leg Jessica kicked the heel of her boot straight into Craig's shin. The pain broke his balance and the hand around her wrist relaxed. He screamed and buckled clumsily to the floor but before he could take her down with him Jessica brought her elbow back, slamming it into his nose. Craig collapsed to the floor with a loud thud, blood spurting from between his fingers as he clamped a hand over his face. Jessica swiveled around and rammed her foot into his ribs twice.  
It was nothing compared to what she wanted to do to him. He'd get to waddle home with some bruised bones and a broken nose, it could have gone a lot worse but she was no killer.  
Jessica scooped up her knife and put distance between herself and Craig.  
“Son of a bitch mother fucker.” 

“ _Wooo-weee_ Jessy Jane! Ya took that fucka ta his knees! Forgot you was such'a fighter.” Lucas gave her a toothy smile. Jessica tried to respond but a rush of vertigo stole the words from her lips. She hardly noticed when Lucas came to her side and fingered the knife from her grasp. He held it up and examined it closely. “Too lil fer my taste but it'll do. So how 'bout it baby? You wanna gut this fucker or can I?”  
Craig regained his senses in time to hear what Lucas was saying. He flopped onto his back and held out his hands in a desperate gesture of mercy pleading.  
“Gut...why would we-?” Her hesitation made Lucas shrug, he turned his attention the man groveling beneath him and waved the switchblade back and forth tauntingly.  
"Any last words there C-Man? No? Well a'ight then!" Craig let out a blood curdling scream as Lucas descended on him like a wild animal. The knife, _her knife_ , plunged into the soft underside of the stout man, puncturing holes in his stomach. Jessica put her hands over her mouth to muffle a ragged sob. She stumbled backwards and hit the wall unable to pry her eyes from the massacre less than five feet away. Her switchblade popped in and out of Craig's belly, streams of blood flew in the wake of her knife painting Lucas in ribbons of red gore.  
Craig put his hands up to guard himself even though it was too late to be saved and took the blade right through the center of his palm. Thunderous screams reverberated against the walls. Jessica felt trapped in a cage full of deafening agony and malicious laughter. Lucas was laughing, she realized, with blood streaks across his excited features.  
Like a cat having grown bored of toying with the mouse Lucas jammed the knife into Craig's jugular to end the cacophony of wails. The cries were replaced with muffled gurgles as he began choking on his own blood. It pooled up to his lips and no matter how much he coughed more bubbled up, drowning him.

“Don't know 'bout you Jess but I'm feelin' rock hard.” Lucas stood up leaving Craig to shudder alone during the last few seconds of his life. He was covered in blood, but not all of it was fresh. In the dull buzzing light of the television Jessica stared at the dark stains on Lucas's pants, dry and stiff. A distinct bulge in his crotch sat painted in the newer coat.  
_He's still holding the fucking knife._  
Shock was beginning to set in. She didn't feel afraid for her life or afraid of Lucas per say. Fear was replaced by a deep numbing throb in her belly surrounded by the need to dry heave. Jessica had already emptied her stomach after seeing the mutilated cow, there was nothing left inside her to purge. 

Lucas advanced, his smile faded. When she stumbled to the side nearly taking down the television he stopped, feigning hurt. “Ah c'mon Jessy. I won't hurt'cha. Ain't ya glad ta see me? God...I'm fuckin' glad ta see you.” Jessica's lips parted and she forced herself to speak. She had to. But everything came tumbling out at once. “Why did you kill him? How are you alive? What happened to you? Where is your family?” The rest was a muddled string of _why-what-how?_ with no follow up. She was shaking. Fight or flight instincts had kicked in and fuck did she wish she had some wings.  
Lucas rolled his eyes like she had asked him something stupid. He bent over and plunged the switchblade into one of Craig's sightless eyes. “Hold yer horses girly we'll get'ta all that soon. Right now we gotta get you to Evie. She'll wanna...eh...see ya.”  
“Who the fuck is Evie?”  
He shrugged. “You'll see.”

Lucas took a step forward. Jessica took one back.  
They began mirroring each other's movements, Lucas always drawing closer while Jessica blindly tried to keep distance between them. Twice her boot caught against the table leg or the rug that threatened to trip her. She'd be prime for the taking if she fell, Lucas would descend on her like he had Craig.  
“Jessy...,” Lucas drew out her name like he'd caught her hand shoved in the cookie jar. “Now, now. Don't make it like this.”  
Her mouth felt too dry. She remembered that summer day when he'd gotten mad enough to wrap his hand around her throat. Lucas had looked at her like he'd wanted to kill her. Back then she'd believed he was incapable of murdering someone, but now? There was no denying it.  
_He just killed that guy with a smile on his face, what in the fuck do you think he'll do to you?_  
Lucas jerked forward and kicked the coffee table across the room. It crashed against the piano causing two of its legs to snap off. Thunder filled the room and Jessica lost the only thing separating her from him. “C'mon now. Ya know me.” “Do I?” The words tore up from her tight throat. “You just...you killed him!” Lucas looked at Craig laying a few feet away without a drop of remorse. “He was gonna hurt ya Jess. I couldn't...fuck...let'em do that to you.” Jessica knew he was fucking playing her. He did care, of course, she knew he didn't want that poor stupid asshole to hurt her. But Lucas was still sporting a full size erection, lingering somewhere between the hunt and the prize. Those soft pleading words were meant to take her guard down. And it worked.

Lucas bowed his head when he saw her posture ease. He was staring up at her through heavy lidded eyes, running his pink tongue back and forth across his lower lip to catch the blood along his chin. He drew his tongue back into his mouth and tasted the bittersweet blood as his eyes feasted on her. The hand he had used to stab Craig reached down and rubbed along the outline of his cock through his jeans. Jessica shuddered and thought about how it had felt when he put his dick deep inside her. Every time she'd come to visit the two of them had fucked like rabbits in heat. More than ever she wanted him inside her, there was nothing like finding out your dead boyfriend wasn't dead. And had it not been for the sobering image of a corpse in the room she may have let him take her right there.  
Jessica ran a hand through her hair but it caught in the knots from having her hair pulled. “Lucas...just tell me what happened. I thought-fuck-I thought you were dead.”  
“On the contrary-,” his head tilted. In the shadow light his smile grew upward along his face like the Cheshire cat. “-I ain't never been more alive.”

-

Seeing his Jessy again had been quite the surprise. She had promised to come back to Dulvey but damn he didn't think she really would, especially not after the world thought he and his family were gator food.  
She looked so sweet with those wide terrified eyes, he wanted to catch that trembling bottom lip between his teeth and bite down. Jessica was dressed in too many short things on account of the heat and it made Lucas wanna forget all about that little bitch Eveline and bend her over the nearest chair. But Lucas knew how this game was played and he knew his role in it. Jessica couldn't just waltz back into their world because things had changed a lot since she left. Namely Mia and Eveline barging in with their fucking mold. But Lucas had changed too, his family were no longer the same people she once knew. There wasn't time to explain all this to Jessica right now. Eveline knew someone new was here and if he didn't introduce Jessica fast she was as good as dead.

Lucas reigned in his desire to fuck her and reached his hand out, doing his best to put on a more trustworthy expression. It was forced but he had to do it, otherwise she might not comply. Now that Jessica was home Lucas had to make sure he didn't let her slip away again.  
“Trust me Jessy, eh? You'll understand soon enough.”  
Like a lamb to slaughter she took the butchers hand. She was always so warm, warmer than him. Jessica used to spouted something about _'cold hands, warm heart'_ whenever he apologized for giving her a chill. The bloodless touch of his fingers closing in around her petrified his little babycakes. Still he drew her in and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. What Jessica took as a passionate embrace was Lucas ensnaring her the way a snake tangles its body around its prey.  
She was so soft, so human. He could squeeze her and snap every bone in her body without even trying if he wanted to. He honestly thought that if he tried to fuck her now he'd shatter Jessica to pieces.  
One sweet hand curled in and clutched the lettering of his hoodie. Jessica cried against him and Lucas let her get all that energy out, the more placated she was the more malleable she'd be when Eveline saw her.  
“I know darlin'. I missed ya too.” Although his voice was soft for her sake Lucas rested his chin on the top of her head and tried his best not to cackle. “But we togeth'a again, right?”  
She shook her head against his chest. “You fucking killed that guy. Someone will come looking for him. They'll throw you in jail.”  
_If the bastards could fuckin' touch me._  
“Hush now Jessy. Ain't shit gonna happen. You just follow.”

He took her back through the passage leaving the dumb fuck's body behind. Lucas had to admit he was well and truly impressed Jessica had downed his ass. She would have seen him use his new abilities had she not saved herself. That would've been hard to explain.  
_My girl ain't no damsel in distress, nah. C-Man is molded chow now._  
There was so much to tell her. Not just about Eveline but where she came from, what her powers offered and how he'd been given control back in exchange for a little information here and there. Before the organization came and offered Lucas a bargain he had been just as loony as his folks. Tearing people apart like wet paper and feeding what he didn't eat to the molded. Eveline was a real bitch thinking she could make a brother out of him. He only had one sister and, well, she was kind of a bitch too.  
_Wonder how Zoe's doin' in the trailer? Bet she'll be all sorts of tickled to see you again Jessy Jane._  
Lucas went down the ladder first, half expecting Jessica to have a change of heart up at the top and make a run for it. But then again, besides his fucked up family, everyone he came into contact with was trying to get away. He wasn't used to having someone willingly follow him around. Not in two years.

Lucas grabbed Jessica by the hips when one of the unstable rungs cracked in half. He steadied her movements and lifted her down the rest of the way. He noticed the look on her face when she realized how easily he had picked her up. Not that he hadn't been strong enough before, she was a little thing, but he'd held her like she weighed nothing.  
Hand in hand they traversed the lower regions of the guest house. It smelled like mold and stagnant water rot, Jessica covered her nose with her free hand. Lucas was accustom to it by now. There were places on the property that were worse than this.  
Like the pool of foul water ahead. Over the last two years the Baker's hadn't been in the right mindset to fix the leak that flooded the basement passage. But it had proven to be a useful addition whenever Mia tried to escape, or anyone else for that matter.  
Jessica stared down at the murky water and Lucas knew it was gonna take some convincing to get her through it. It was one thing to take her mind off of him killing a man right there in front of her virgin eyes. Another to tell her to get her pretty little outfit wet.  
“I think the smell is coming from in there.”  
_More than a chance a'that._ “It'll be quick Jess. Lil cold dip then **pow**! We'll be on the otha' side.”  
“No new passage down here to avoid it?”  
He shook his head, squeezing her hand. “Nope. This's it. The main house is a lil more...together.” 

Maybe it was shock, or she was dumb, or she still had feelings for his ass. Whatever the case was, Jessica took a deep breath and followed Lucas into the muck. The boner he'd been carrying disappeared with the cold chest deep water. But it wasn't so bad. Jessica was up to her damn neck in it and had to cling to Lucas like a little soaked cat. The belly shirt she wore was saturated in the filthy water and went from light gray to dark. Peeking down Lucas admired the outline of her strapless bra thinking about how good her tits looked all wet.  
_Can't wait ta see those again._

Everything before he had been freed of Eveline's control was hazy. Lucas remembered a few distinct things for sure but so much of it was hive mind insanity. When the girl took over that was it and when she wasn't paying attention he had been moderately in control. One thing Lucas remembered clearly were the text messages from Jessica. He'd read and reread them, fucked out of his mind, using them as an anchor. They'd helped him pull through sometimes and be able to walk down the hall in his own head. Even if it was for just a minute.  
But then she sent those goodbye texts. 

**Jessy Jane:** I miss you.  
**Jessy Jane:** Why the fuck did you have to go and die on me? Couldn't you have left me a god damn body to mourn?  
**Jessy Jane:** I came down to see you anyways. Cops wouldn't let me through. I sat there outside the gate like an asshole for a week. Everyone there pitied me.   
**Jessy Jane:** I wish I could see you again

_No ya don't_ , he had thought. Miserable was the closest Lucas came to describing how he'd felt while out of control. He had problems up in his skull, sure he fucking knew that. But it was _his_ skull, not E-001 or whatever those fucks called her. Ain't no one gonna puppet him around.  
_Stay the fuck away from this place ya dumb bitch._ He didn't want her to suffer then. But it was different now. Jessica wouldn't have to be caught up in the mold like his folks. If she had willpower like Zoe she could fight it. If not, well Lucas had a way to fix that.

After about a month Jessica must have opened up their messages again to send him another tear soaked text, only to find someone had read the ones sent after his disappearance. Oh she'd flown off the handle on that one.

**Jessy Jane:** Who the fuck is reading these?  
**Jessy Jane:** Did you get this number?  
**Jessy Jane:** Answer me you fuck! Do you have Lucas's phone?  
_'Kay now that was just a lil funny_.  
The angry threats went on for a good week. Every once in a while Lucas would go back on them and reread it just to get a laugh. 

They emerged from the water coated in a slick film of translucent slime. Jessica looked perturbed by it, touching her clothes and the ends of her hair in revulsion. Lucas closed the gap and cupped her cheeks in both of his hands. Jessica looked up at him with a mixture of hope and confusion. Basked in the weak light Lucas watched as she blink back tears. Somewhere deep down the old Lucas longed to kiss her and tell her how sorry he was for what she was about to endure.  
“Listen ta me baby and listen well.” She nodded into his hands. “This...all this...it's gonna take some time ta adjust ta. But keep ya fuckin' head, aight? That means if ya got sumthin' smartass to say bite yo tongue even if it bleeds. I'm protectin' ya, makin' ya apart of the new family. Ya may hate it but ya made me a promise, remember?”  
_Only we don't get ta go runnin' into the sunset._  
Jessica opened her mouth to say something then closed it. He was proud of how well she was taking all this although he found her to be a little too trusting. But it didn't matter, Lucas wanted her and now he had her. If Jessica had tried to fight him Lucas would have dragged her into the bowels of hell kicking and screaming without an ounce of regret. Letting her run away again would have been the right thing to do, sure. But it wasn't what he was going to do. Lucas was a selfish bastard and Jessica belonged to him, she always had. Her thinking she could run off was a joke because in the end look where she ended up. 

Lucas released Jessica and opened the door. He went to take her hand but her attention was locked on the wooden boards they had passed after climbing out of the water. Following her gaze he saw that she was staring at the fliers of missing people. Some of them were from Dulvey, the first few fuckwads who thought they could creep into the old haunted Baker estate for fun. When those types stopped coming around Evie let Lucas personally branch out of town to lure more people to her. Most of which were dumb tourists coming down to New Orleans. Mardi Gras was one hell of a harvest this year.  
Jessica counted the faces in a low whisper until she shuddered the final number: “Twelve.”  
“More'n that.” He admitted. “But that's a helluva record.”  
She turned to him, this time not trying to hide the lonely tear that trailed down the side of her cheek. “What are you going to do to me?”  
_So many fucking things baby._ “Mind ya'self Jessy. It ain't me ya gotta worry 'bout...for now.” No point in lying to her about that. 

Lucas took Jessica's wrist and pulled her in behind him. The basement dwellings were dank except for the far off light of Mia's cell. He tugged her along as she quietly stared at the mold and rust saturating the walls. This place had become a sort of dumping ground for a few of his props, who else besides Lucas had any use for an extra toilet and some mannequin heads? He released Jessica by the cell and stepped over to the tool bench to scribble down an update beside Craig's name.  
_Poor piggly fuck. D-E-A-D, **DEAD!**_  
It wasn't a total loss though, Lucas thought he'd make a great Fat Man #2.  
Behind him Jessica had discovered Mia laying on the little cot inside the cell. Frantically she tugged at the iron bars and called out to her.  
“Hey! Hey can you hear me? Are you okay?”  
He waved his arm in dismissal. “She's jus' fine. Been sleepin' a'lot since we found'er.”  
“Wait...the woman your father found, this is her?”  
“Ya surprised?” He put down the pen and sauntered over. Jessica backed away when he got close but Lucas ignored it this time. “A fer sure bitch. Evie lets'er out here'n there. Stretch'er legs'n what not. But ya don't gotta worry 'bout her.”

“Brother?”  
Lucas and Jessica turned towards the voice at the other end of the room beyond the tool bench. Shrouded in the dark the only thing you could see of Eveline were her little black boots and the hem of her dress. Lucas put on his biggest goofball smile and acted excited to see her.  
“Hey there lil sis! I want ya to meet my girl Jessica. Jessy-,” he turned to give her a stern look that only she could see. Now was the time to play real fucking nice. “This here is Eveline. Evie fer short. She's my favorite lil sister, ain'tcha?”  
“H-Hey Evie. Is it okay if I call you Evie?” Her voice was shaking but she was doing just fine. Jessica was a good little actress.  
Gradually Eveline eased further into view. Her face was still hidden but her childlike body stood a little closer than before. She wasn't a shy one, just creepy. Sometimes she acted just like you'd expect a little girl to and other time she found ways to make even his skin crawl.  
“Yes. Can I call you Jessy?” 

-

“Of course. I'd like that.” Jessica knew immediately that this little girl had been her monster in the swamp, not Mia. The way she spoke was unsettling. She asked a question but her tone didn't give you the option to say no.  
Not to mention something was terribly wrong with her voice. The best way Jessica could describe it was that she sounded like a child with a sore throat. Raspy and hoarse but the voice distinctly belonging to a little girl. It was hard to make it out in the poor lighting but Evie's hands looked weathered, reminiscent of a small old woman's hands.  
The silence that stretched out between them caused Lucas to shift uncomfortably beside her. Jessica took a mental note and kept smiling pleasantly.  
“Aye so uh, Jessy here wants'ta join the family. She was...is my girl. She had'ta leave fer a bit but she came back when I told'er 'bout ya.”  
Jessica rolled with the lie. “How 'bout it Evie? Can I stay?”  
From the shadows the girl lifted her head and stayed quiet a moment longer, making them sweat. “Why should I let you? I already have a sister.”  
“Aw c'mon now Evie don't be like that!” Was that worry she heard in his voice? “She'd be a bet'ta sister than that bitch Zoe. Zoe don't even want ta be wit' us! Jessy came'a long ways fer this.”  
Eveline giggled. “She can be one of my friends.”  
Before Jessica could accept that offer Lucas cut in, his voice wavered between panic and anger. “Nah, c'mon lil sis. Jessy-”. “I don't have any brothers or sisters Evie.” She blurted out. “I always wanted one really bad. If you'd be my sister I promise I'd love you so much.”

That hit home. Eveline's entire body froze except for her hands that she clasped in front of her, thumbs twiddling around one another. “You mean that?”  
Jessica knelt down and held out her hand. “I really do. I want a good sister just as much as you do.”  
“Okay.” Eveline murmured uncertainly. Suddenly timid as a mouse she stepped out into the light. Jessica stifled a reaction as her eyes settled on the child before her. If she could be called a child at all. The cherub features were marred with deep set wrinkles that brought her full cheeks to a sag. Her dark hair, so much like Jessica's own, had silver streaks running through it. If it was possible to age a child so dramatically without robbing her of the innocent roundness of youth, Evie was the prime example.  
The girl waited for a negative reaction, some sort of gasp to show Jessica's disgust. To mask her horror Jessica merely made herself grin wider.  
“Look at that.” Jessica chuckled. “We both have the same color hair. Maybe we were meant to be sisters.”  
Eveline was no doubt enchanted by this idea. They were both pale, black haired girls with cold eyes. Yet there was an intense flame behind Eveline's tired lids that the strange acceleration in age hadn't stolen. Jessica raised her arms to the child, actually forgetting Lucas in the weight of her gaze. Unless Evie was a fluent actress herself that desperation for affection was not false.

Lucas took a step back when Eveline ran up and wrapped her arms around her tight. She nestled her face into Jessica's hair and giggled with pure excitement. Jessica's guard fell. She let herself forget that the situation as a whole was inherently wrong. But that was because Eveline's influence was already taking root. 

“I can't wait to see what you can do.” She whispered delightfully.  
Jessica tensed, leaning her ear closer to Eveline. “What...what do you mean?”  
The small child's arms wrapped around her body tighter. Stronger than a little girl, withered as she was, should have been able to do. Jessica tried to pull away but her muscles locked up, pinning her in place. An agonizing sensation sprouted from where Eveline touched her, growing hot across her body.  
Evie released her and smiled as though everything was perfectly fine. On her knees Jessica forced her hands up and watched in mute horror as black webbing stretched across her skin.  
“ _Ah...it...it hurts so much..._ ” Muscles contorted, bones bent at impossible angles. The grotesque tendrils spread up her throat and over her mouth. Eveline told Jessica that it would all be better soon but the sound of her cheerful voice was muffled by the mold sliding into her ears.  
Jessica looked up at Lucas before everything went dark, she reached out expecting him to help her.

Her final thoughts repeated over and over as she consumed: _Why is he smiling? Why is he smiling?_

-

The mold receded from Jessica's unconscious body leaving her limp on the basement floor. Lucas released the breath he'd been holding in, relief washing over him. Sometimes when Evie ended up liking someone enough she'd put them through what his associates called 'mold bonding'. Unlike the molded creatures creeping around, the ones Evie affectionately called her 'friends', the direct bonding Eveline had put him and his family through didn't turn them into the freak monsters that littered the residence. Instead they became enhanced and received incredible strength, endurance and healing properties that nearly eliminated death. It sounded like a dream come true until you realized that her 'gift' gave her absolute control over your mind and body. You were her puppet to play house with as often as she pleased.  
And when you upset her enough times she had the ability to calcify your body, killing you instantly.  
But the mold bonding didn't always take. More times than not he had seen the hosts die screaming. It was a quick but excruciating process, not everyone was built for a complete genetic overhaul.

Jessica's breathing was shallow but she was alive. Lucas was proud to know his girl had what it took to survive something like that.

Eveline clapped her hands and spun around to face Lucas. She was really fucking pleased with herself. However after Jessica's ass kissing performance there was no way Evie could have denied her.  
“Thank you, thank you big brother! I love her. She's perfect.”  
“Yeah...ain't she?”  
“We have to show daddy. He'll be so happy to have another daughter don't you think? Maybe we can make Zoe come home.” Lucas didn't understand what kept Evie from killing his sister to begin with. Zoe hadn't done anything to outwardly slight Eveline that she was aware of. But Zoe denied the gift. Hid away in that God forsaken trailer.  
Lucas nodded and leaned down, scooping Jessica up into his arms. Her body hung limp against his chest positioned bridal style so that her head rested below his shoulder. He didn't know whether his folks would even recognize her.

The little girl went to Mia's cell and stared for a moment at the comatose woman inside. Despite having fought Evie and forced her to go to further lengths to control Mia, the kid still saw her as her mother. It would have been sad if he gave a shit.  
Lucas let Eveline lead the way out of the basement. Since he'd begun reporting back to her creators about her activity, or at least they claimed to be her creators, he had seen a noticeable decline in her outward appearance.  
For one she was aging rapidly. Six months ago Evie looked like a ten year old girl, now she was stuck in some horrific melding of youth and old age. The Organization gave him no explanation as to why this was happening, not that he'd expected one. They simply thanked him for the update.  
Secondly Eveline was starting to appear to him and the family in her original state via her fucked up connection to them. He'd been worried she would get into his head and realize she had no control but whatever serum those fucks had given him tricked her senses.  
Lucas had a theory that her rapid aging was eventually gonna turn her to dust, soon she wouldn't be able to move and would run around their minds as a kid until she croaked.  
_And if she drops dead these powers might not just go away._  
Or they'd all calcify and die but...maybe his friends in high places would have a serum for that too.

Lucas put Eveline out of his mind. They took the stairs up into the guest house and headed outside. Jack had made a secret pathway for Eveline to get back and forth between houses. With the exhaustion she suffered more and more often she would utilize his grandpa's old wheelchair to get around. At the moment she was perky, excited to have added to their fucked up family unit. But bonding Jessica would catch up to her soon and they'd be seeing a lot more hallucinations for the next few days.  
The sun had begun to set behind the trees, the air almost didn't smell like complete dog shit. Lucas fell back a few steps so he could crane the arm around Jessica's back and get a handful of her tit. He was gonna miss how warm she was. Jessica was gonna get cold real soon and Lucas needed to make a call down in the salt mines on her behalf.  
_Don'tcha worry Jessy Jane, that lil cunt ain't gonna have ya fer long._

Evie spun around and saw Lucas groping Jessica before he could pull away. She didn't say anything about it however her stare was eerily observant. He didn't know what shit she understood or if she even knew what fucking was. But what little human she had in her decoded certain touching to be different than others. They'd had short-lived additions to the family who had been in a married when they were taken. Eveline did not enforce anyone to pretend they weren't together, only insisted they were her brothers and sisters.  
_As'n her brothers'n sisters. Not each others._  
However she thought family worked Lucas didn't care. No part of it made sense anyways. As far as he could tell his father was daddy and Mia was mommy. Lucas's own mother had been deemed 'family' without any specific role.

Jack and Marguerite were already on the porch standing idle like mannequins, their eyes glazed over staring at nothing. Lucas remembered what it felt like being summoned by Evie, you just sat there waiting for her to command you to do something. As soon as they saw her they became animated, petting her head and spewing compliments towards their precious baby girl.  
Had it not been for Jessica in his arms they may have overlooked Lucas completely.

“What'ta we have here?” Jack put his hand on the girl's shoulder. “A new membah' of the-,” Lucas's father stared at Jessica with a blank expression. His bloodshot eyes twitched behind the cracked lenses as the cogs in his addled mind creaked. “Well I'll be! Marguerite look-y who we gots here. Lil Jessy Radcliffe!”  
Marguerite planted her hands over her face and scuttled forward like a mother hen with a finger shoved up her ass. “Oh Lucas! This is just'a blessin'. Evie baby did you get'ta meet'er?”  
The girl nodded. “I like her. I showed her my gift. She's my sister now.”  
Marguerite embraced Eveline, then Lucas with Jessica between them and finally Jack who was now just as ecstatic as she was. His Pa puffed out his chest pridefully. “Two baby girls. I'mma a lucky man.”  
No one was stupid enough to bring up Zoe. Not unless they wanted both Jack and Marguerite to spiral into hysterics.  
“Well this calls fer'a celebration don'tcha think? I'll start on suppa while ya'll get set up in the kitchen.” Marguerite didn't wait for a response from the family, she was already back inside and on her way to the kitchen. Jack stepped forward and held out his arms.  
“Go help ya mama set up fer the feast boy. I'll get Jessy here set up.”  
Lucas snarled. “Nah. I'll worry 'bout'er”  
A familiar shade of red spread over Jack Baker's bloated cheeks. If one thing about his father had remained from his former self it was his undiluted disdain for Lucas. “Now boy this gonna be a special night. Don't ya go fuckin' it up fer us. Think'a Jessy'n how much this'll mean ta her.”

Jessica wouldn't like dinner time. And tonight neither would he. The food his mama made would turn any normal human into a molded. But for those with the gift it was nothing but a ritual. Lucas wouldn't have minded eating it had the shit not been soured by the mold and several weeks old. People tasted better raw but fuck it, it was more for the guests than them.  
Reluctantly Lucas handed Jessica over to Jack and watched with a piss poor expression as he carried her off into the dining room. Eveline was right on Jack's heels like a dutiful daughter. Or a dog.

Lucas went inside and locked up the house. Tonight would be one hell of an adventure that was for sure. If Jessica kept playing along though they'd fair just fine. _Welcome home babycakes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It wouldn't be a RE7 fic without the 'Welcome to the family' tagline somewhere in there. I want to say real quick that Lucas has changed a lot in the last two years. Compared to how he was in When We Were Young you might think wow he's sort of impersonal right now? Tricking Jess like that and not being genuine with her? Well after dealing with a good chunk of people who fought and tried to escape the Bakers, Lucas is used to having to manipulate and play games. He isn't letting himself get excited about having Jess back just yet, trying not to at least. But he is really happy I swear, he just knows her well enough and he doesn't expect this whole 'accept her gift' crap is gonna work on her. Jess isn't feeble minded.  
> Speaking of that I also wanted to state Jessica has never in her life had a reason NOT to trust Lucas. So while he just killed a guy and is acting hella shady a part of her still sees the guy she grew up with, someone she has missed and desperately wants to be with again. So that is why she is so trusting of him. And shock. Lots of shock.  
> Thanks again for reading the chapter, I love hearing from you guys. It makes my day!


	3. Dinner With The Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica awakens and finds her world turned upside down, but there is someone out there willing to save her from dinner with the Bakers.

Lucas watched from the kitchen serving hatch as his father set Jessica up in the dining room chair. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of her being manhandled by Jack, his hands were all over her moving Jessica around like she was an oversized doll. She was still out cold and because she was limp her thin body wrenched from side to side as Jack tried to position her. His Pa just didn't know his own strength anymore, the honest truth was this was as gentle as Jack could get.   
Marguerite tapped her son's shoulder and Lucas made the mistake of looking directly down at her, getting a face full of brown teeth smiling up at him. There were dismembered bug pieces between them, some still twitching.   
“Oh my baby I betcha' so happy ta 'ave Jessy home!”  
Lucas nodded and diverted his gaze back to the scene in the dining room. Jack was becoming increasingly frustrated with how Jessica's head kept lolling to the side.  
_Ya break'er neck I'll break yer face old man._  
Marguerite went back to the boiling stew pot and peeked in. The stench coated the small enclosure almost immediately, savory with a hint of copper. “Mmm-mmm!” she hummed pleasantly. “Our girl gonna get fed t'night! Lucas honey would ya be a dear'n hand me sum'ma that right there?” She motioned towards the diced liver that once belonged to a homeless man Lucas had picked up a month or so back. He almost felt sorry for the poor fuck. Louisiana was far enough down south that hospitality from strangers wasn't uncommon. The homeless man had thought he'd be getting a home cooked meal for a little yard work. Now his body was in the morgue downstairs undergoing transformation while his organs were cooked in a pot.  
“Sure thing mama.” Lucas grabbed a handful of the strips and dropped them into Marguerite's cupped palms. Before Evie came along if Lucas had grabbed her ingredients with unwashed hands she would have had a fit. Instead his mother emitted a pleased slurping sound with her mouth and dropped the pieces into the stew.  
Lucas plucked one of the slivers of meat that had been left on the plate and popped it into his mouth. It was still raw and soaked with blood, just how he liked it. Marguerite caught Lucas in the act and slapped her son on the arm playfully with a dishrag for being such a sneak.   
Sometimes it felt like his mother hadn't changed at all.

Jack finished tying Jessica's arms and legs down to the chair and began passing out stained porcelain bowls. Marguerite used to be so proud of her great grandmama's dishes, pristine and pearly white. Yet the amount of bloody soups and stews the family had ingested lately had turned them a stale yellow-brown.   
“Ah c'mon old man, ya ain't gotta strap'er in.”  
Lucas's father turned his head towards the kitchen to look at him, his cheeks were red and his eyes were bulging from their sockets. Jack didn't take much to piss off these days. Evie had wandered up to her room after a wave of weariness sapped her strength. It was happening sooner and sooner each time she exerted her powers. But her with absence and Jessica being unconscious, the unhinged temperament of his father began to rip loose.   
“Boy!” Jack slammed a bowl down onto the table causing it to shatter. “Ya know we gots'ta do it! Jessy...she been gone a long time. She won't understand why things is the way they is. We gotta make her see it.”  
Instead of arguing Lucas rolled his eyes and went back to helping his mother with the bum stew. Jack was too invested in making dinnertime perfect so Lucas felt like he didn't have to worry about his father touching Jessica.   
_Fuck hope he ain't touchin' no one...not with how mama is now..._  
From time to time Jack did in fact get handsy with the female guests, but only if Marguerite and the family weren't around to see it. Even when things were normal his Pa had been the sort of man to make comments about Zoe's friends or women he saw in town. Zoe had told Lucas she once overheard their mother and father arguing about _'that foreign whore you fucked while overseas'_ but both of them were too afraid to bring it up to either of their parents. Maybe Jacked loved Marguerite or maybe they had one of those old southern marriages where the man cheats on his goodly housewife and it never came up unless they got into a fight.

“I sure do wish Evie was feelin' up'ta bein' here.” Marguerite lamented as she stirred the pot. Lucas made a point not to swat the gnat that flew around the kitchen sink. If it belonged to Marguerite she'd know that he killed it. “Poor lil dear.”  
Jack nodded his head from the dining room. “Sure is'a shame. But she wants'ta see Jessy afterwards. She gonna be such a good big sister to our lil girl.”  
“Better than that dumb cunt Zoe!” A dozen more gnats flew out from his mother's mouth and ears. Lucas cried out in disgust and shielded his face while navigating a path out of the kitchen. They never seemed to stray far from his mama unless she ordered them to. The bugs circled the old woman and swept up beneath her skirt when the bout of anger subsided.   
“We don't need'er honey.” Jack soothed, placing the final bowl down. “We gots good girls already.”

Lucas zipped up his jacket and pulled the hood over his head. His attention returned to Jessica sitting at the table, no longer obstructed by his father. The black veins were gone but the mold was inside her growing and spreading with Evie's influence. He'd have to get to the salt mines soon, the more Lucas thought about Jessica ending up like his folks the more anxious he became. But he'd rather see her go mad than turn into Zoe. The bitch was resilient against Eveline's control, something Lucas had been jealous of at first. But now that he could see things clearly Lucas knew being outcasted was just as bad if not worse than being under Eveline's influence.  
For Zoe being disowned meant every time his mama or pop got a look at her they'd become violent and try to attack her. Not to mention anyone else under Eveline's thumb like Mia. The kid knew Zoe was nosing around for a cure so she made sure leaving the trailer was dangerous for her. Eveline may have been reluctant to just kill Zoe in the first place because then she wouldn't have a sister anymore, but with Jessy accepted into the family life would be a whole hell of a lot worse for her.

Lucas slithered from the cramped kitchen and hovered against the threshold admiring Jessica. She looked so damn good just sitting there sleeping like an angel, practically gift wrapped just for him. Lucas wanted to grab the back of the chair and drag her to the barn. That's where she'd end up anyways after he freed her from Evie's mind fucking.   
_Jus' me'n you babycakes. Fuckin' all day'n night. Let 'ese assholes have their dinners'n their guests. You'n me have other business._  
A sudden and swift smack to the back of his head knocked Lucas forward. He clutched his head in pain and spun on his heels, now toe to toe with his father. Jack's teeth clenched together so hard he thought they might crack apart in his mouth.  
“Quit'cho starin' boy! Ya keep ya pencil dick in yer pants! This here is a special night!” Lucas wasn't afraid to smart off to Jack, in fact he intended to tell him to go fuck himself. But the tightness down between his legs shut him up. Lucas hadn't realized he'd popped a boner right there in front of his folks thinking about Jessica until he saw Jack pointing at the tent in his pants. Lucas tried to pull his jacket down over his crotch but it was too late. Hearing the commotion his mother peeked out from the kitchen like a mouse, her mouth pursed in an 'O' of surprise. “Ah now look'it what'cha done! Ya mama don't need ta' be seein' that!”  
Marguerite snickered and a roach crawled out of her nose, it too taking witness to his shame. “Aw now Jack sweety ya know our Lucas's liked Jessy for a long time. She'a pretty girl, he's jus lookin'.”  
Whether or not they were a normal family anymore Lucas decided this situation was still the worst thing in the world. Almost as bad as having your parents walk in on you beating off, which was why Lucas had always done that in the attic.

“Surry.” He groaned under his breath, head lowered as he took a seat at the table. Marguerite carried the steaming hot stew into the kitchen and placed it in the middle of the table. Jack opened it up and took a nice long whiff.  
“Well honey this gots'ta be yer best batch yet!”  
If his mama could blush Lucas thought she would have. Jack doled out Jessica's bowl first and placed it down in front of her before making some for Marguerite and himself. Lucas went last, no surprise there, but he didn't feel particularly hungry. For food that is.

His parents ate greedily of the cooked innards, feasting like rabid dogs on a carcass. All the while Lucas continued to watch Jessica's face, calm and angelic. He remembered what she looked like screaming her head off as he licked her pussy and how her eyes rolled when he'd been inside her. If he had to be honest not much had changed about his little Jessy Jane. Her hair was longer, down to about the middle of her back. She was paler than he'd expected someone living in Florida to be, however according to her social media she hadn't been going out much.

Yes, Lucas had been stalking her since he'd gotten his brain back. He had to put that computer in the mines to use otherwise all he did on it was email the fuckwads about Eveline. He kept up to date with everything she had done, read everything she posted, saved every picture and spied on everyone in her friends list too. There were a few pictures of Jessica on her male friend's accounts he intended to ask her about. Nothing incriminating but still...they weren't on her profile meaning she hadn't wanted anyone who knew her to see them.   
_She wouldn't have a boyfriend, nah fuck that. All'em sappy posts she made 'bout me'n my family. That'd be jus' downright disrespectful._

Still he intended to know for certain whether or not she'd kept her legs shut, otherwise it would drive him crazy. Just the idea of someone else fucking her made Lucas want to lash out.

He was still staring menacingly at Jessica when her eyes began to flutter. Lucas watched her fingers flex and take hold of the arm of the chair. Her brows knit together in drowsy confusion. Slowly she pulled open her heavy eyelids and looked up at the Bakers.

_Here we go._

-

The first thing Jessica heard were the sound of chewing. Not just any chewing, the kind you'd expect from a dog lapping up wet food. Moist open mouthed chomping, ravenous teeth crushing chunky bits of meat.  
_Please tell me Kenzi didn't save another stray animal and feed it my tuna. I swear to fucking..._  
Jessica remembered driving to Dulvey through the night, she remembered seeing the butchered cow and sneaking into the guest house. The memory of Craig's face in the light of the dim TV came to mind and then...  
Lucas. Evie. Darkness swallowing her whole.

Jessica pried her eyes open and craned her neck straight. It ached like a motherfucker from having been bent to the side for too long. The cramp was forgotten however when she laid eyes on the Bakers eating dinner across the table. There was so much fucked up shit going on that Jessica's mind, overwhelmed by everything in the last twenty four hours, unpacked the scene bit by bloody bit.  
She looked down at the bowl in front of her knowing that whatever those meaty chunks were she wanted nothing to do with them. There were several different looking kinds of meat in the stew and nothing else. No one just ate purely meat stew, right? This was Louisiana, there should have been beans at least.  
Across the table Lucas was gawking at her with narrowed suspicious eyes. For a second Jessica took solace in that, while everything was going tits up, Lucas Baker was still a leery son of a bitch. Her gaze traveled to his parents at the head of the round table. They were the source of the awful chewing noises. The two were haphazardly scooping their stew out of the bowls with their hands and jamming it into their mouths, spoons and forks neatly left on the table.  
Jessica swallowed and silently peered around the room hoping Lucas would let her get a feel for her situation before telling his parents she was awake. The creepy little girl was nowhere in sight and neither was Zoe.   
Was she even alive? God Jessica hoped so, but not if that meant she was anything like the rest of her family.

Marguerite noticed her peering around the dining room and she slammed her arms down on the table hard enough that Jessica's bowl bounced and hot liquid splashed over her legs. Jessica hissed and tried to get up but the restraints pinned her to the chair. _Jesus Christ they tied me up?_  
“Jack! Jack look! Jessy's awake!”  
The older man glanced up and stared at her through the broken lenses of his glasses. “Welcome home Jessy Jane. Don't ya mind those ties there. Jus' don't want ya gettin' spooked'n runnin' off.”  
If Lucas expected her to keep playing it cool he had another thing coming. Fortunately she had no fucking idea what to say so she kept her mouth shut for now. Jessica eyed Lucas, hoping he would say something to break the tension, but he went on staring at her like an idiot.  
“Where is...uh...Evie?”  
“Oh she wasn't feelin' so good.” Marguerite mumbled sadly, scooping up another handful and smacking it into her mouth. The broth slid down her chin as four or five bug swirled around her head. She hardly seemed to notice them.  
_This isn't the Marguerite I know. Prim and proper and clean. Always telling Zoe to get her elbows off the table._  
Jack slurped the last bit of broth from his bowl and decided to get himself another helping. He pulled off the lid and dipped the dish in, scooping up too much stew which caused the bowl to overfill. The broth ran over and pieces of meat plopped onto the table. “I'd have Lucas here help ya eat but sumthin' tells me he'd try ta feed ya his cock before he fed ya dinner.” Jessica's eyes bugged out of her head. Her mouth fell open at Jack's crude language, something that was very very much not like him.  
Lucas snorted and crossed his arms, leaning back in the chair. “Whatever old man, ya probably haven't got yer dick sucked in years. Unless Mama let summa' her roaches suck ya off.”

Jack lunged forward and cracked Lucas on the side of the head without hesitation. Before he had time to hit the ground Lucas's father was standing over him with one of the knives that had been on the table. Jessica leaned down and saw Lucas laying there holding his face as a trickle of blood streamed down the side of his cheek. “Goddamn ya piece'a shit ya didn't have ta hit me!”  
“Ya done did it now boy! I'mma cut that smart ass tongue right outta yo head!”  
“Jack don't-,” Marguerite came forward but before she could defend her son Jack pushed her backwards with one arm and sent her careening into the living room. Wasps and flies crept out from beneath Marguerite's skirt and flew all around her defensively.   
“Shut ya fuckin' mouth! The boy gonna learn today!”  
Lucas's father grabbed him up by the collar of his hoodie and swung back the knife, aiming right for his son's face.

“Mr. Baker!” Jack swung his attention towards Jessica but she was ready for it. “What are we having? It smells so good.”  
Her plan had worked. Jack shoved Lucas away roughly and picked up the kitchen chair he'd been sitting in. It had fallen back when he stood up and went for his son. Marguerite gave Jessica an almost apologetic look as she scuttled meekly back to her seat, demanding no comeuppance for being pushed by her husband.   
Lucas on the other hand didn't sit. He picked himself up and stood by the wall looking cantankerous while wiping blood away with his sleeve.  
“Well-,” Jack said calmly. “-this here is liver, a pancreas and uh...what was that last one sugar?”  
“It's the intestines, lower. The upper bit always gets me a lil sick.”   
Jessica felt her stomach twist into knots. She worded her next question very carefully. “Of...what?”  
They all looked at her. Fucking hell she wished she hadn't asked. She already knew the answer.  
“Well ya see darlin',” Jack began matter-of-factly. “Our Evie done gave us such a marvelous gift.”  
“Very blessed, oh yes.” Marguerite nodded, going back to her meal.  
“An' so she showed us a bet'ta way to live. We got'ta take care of our own, don't we Jessy Jane? We got'ta be a family. Outsida's don't belong'n our flock. But they still have themselves a part at our table.”

With her mind reeling Jessica's ability to keep up this charade just...snapped.   
“Are you all...fucking...crazy?” The Bakers stopped eating and dropped their bowls onto the table in mute shock. They stared over at her like she'd just taken a shit right there in the stew. “What the hell is wrong with you guys? You're eating...people!?”   
“Calm down now Jessy.” Lucas urged nervously. He pushed off of the wall and edged towards her, his eyes darting between Marguerite and Jack. “We all jus' need ta eat like we's 'spose ta. Everythin' is fine.”  
“Fine? Fine!? Lucas there are bugs flying out of your mom's cooch. Everything is not fucking fine!”  
With the outburst behind her Jessica began to hyperventilate. Lucas only a few steps away from her but it was too late, the Bakers were on their feet and they were livid.

“I slaved fer hours makin' this feast jus' fer you!” More bugs swarmed from the orifices of Marguerite's head like a rattled wasps nest. “Yer an ungrateful lil bitch! Yer gonna eat supper'n like it!”  
Jack rounded the table in a flash, shoving Lucas back against the wall as he got in front of her. He grabbed the chair beneath her with two mighty hands and picked it up into the air with ease. Jack slammed her down forcing Jessica to face him. He grabbed the bowl off the table and scooped out a handful. The chopped offal hung just below Jessica's chin and she fought the urge to vomit stomach acid all over Jack Baker.  
“Now yer gonna eat this.” He said between clenched teeth. “We doin' this fer you Jessy Jane! Be a good girl and eat ya goddamn supp'a!”  
“Go to hell Jack!”  
That was the wrong answer. Jack shoved his hand towards Jessica's face and she turned away before he got to her mouth. Her cheek was slathered in the foul meat juices. Jessica struggled against the ropes binding her arms and legs, too horrified by Jack to care that they were cutting into her flesh.   
He tried holding her head still but Jessica was too quick. She jerked her face around grunting and groaning with each attempt.   
When Jack stood up she thought maybe it was over until he slapped her open palm across the cheek. Jessica's ears rang and her sight blurred but somewhere beneath the sea of stinging pain she heard Lucas yelling. Jessica blinked back tears, her neck hurting more than ever, and focused her attention on Lucas. He was on the floor again and Marguerite was going wild screaming at everything and nothing all at once. Jack must have pushed him down because he was struggled to get back up to his feet. Halfway up Lucas's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide with horror. By the time she realized he was looking at father it was too late.  
Jessica looked up in time to see Jack raising a fork and knife in the air above her head.  
_Oh fuck!_

The fork prongs pierced through the flesh of Jessica's right hand. They went in so deep that she could feel the tips scraping against the wood beneath her palm. At the same time the kitchen knife had gone hilt deep above her left knee sending a tremors of hot pain radiating across her entire body like a scattered signal. The agony blinded Jessica and she didn't realize she was screaming until Jack Baker shoved the handful of human meat into her mouth, silencing her cries. He clamped his hand over her lips to keep her from spitting it out and Jessica had no choice but to swallow it whole. Her stomach lurched, trying to purge her body of the inhumane meal but vomit made it to her throat and no further. Acid burned the back of her mouth staining Jessica's tongue with the foul taste of bile. Between the pain and the nausea she had to fight to keep herself from passing out. There was no way in hell she could afford to black out in the middle of this nightmare, uncertain of where she'd wake up next.  
A blur crossed her foggy vision, it was Lucas tackling Jack to the floor freeing Jessica of any further torment. Once the high pitch ringing in her ears subsided she could hear the uproar in the room.  
Lucas and Jack were wrestling each other on the ground like dogs while Marguerite switched between yelling at them to stop fighting to yelling at her for being so ungrateful and causing this.

From behind her a thin arm appeared and ripped the fork from Jessica's hand. She cried miserably but no one could hear her over the Baker men fighting. Marguerite had ended up pulling on Jack to keep from continuing to mercilessly hit Lucas with a closed fist.   
The knife was the next to be pried from her body and blood flowed freely from the gaping wound.  
“Can ya walk?” The voice was female and sounded familiar but Jessica was in no position to discern who it was, just that it was helping.  
“My leg.” She slurred. “Fuck, my leg.”  
“'Kay then I reckon I'll drag ya.”  
Zoe appeared beside Jessica and made quick work of her restraints with a bowie knife. She was careful not to scrape her wrists with the sharp end but at this point a little stab wasn't going to bother her none.   
Zoe Baker tucked her head under Jessica's arm and hauled her up to her feet. Jessica made a horrible sound when putting weight on her bad leg causing a battered Lucas snapped his head to the side. He bared his teeth like an animal.

“Fuck!” Zoe pulled Jessica along as fast as she could. It wasn't easy but she stepped in time with her, hiking the bad leg up so it didn't get in their way. Lucas was fighting Jack off and trying to go after them as he was the only one who realized they were getting away.  
“Zoey ya fuckin' bitch!” Jessica was crying but she didn't know why. The pain mixed with the seeing Lucas on the floor bleeding was too much for her, she wished this nightmare would just end.“Jessica get yer ass back here! Jess!”  
“Don't ya fuckin' listen to 'em Jess.” Zoe hissed, turning them towards the relief door. She noticed all the family photos were still there. The Bakers when they were normal and happy and...like she'd left them years ago. “He ain't right. None of'em are.”  
“Are you?”  
The short haired woman placed the emblem into the slot with one hand and elbowed it open. “So far so good. Evie hasn't got me yet.”  
_But she got me >/i>, Jessica thought, _I can feel her inside me.__

__

Zoe dragged them across the living room and picked the dog head head relief off the side table by the phone. She put it in the door and turned back to see if anyone was behind them. “Ya know how ya know I like ya Jessy?”  
“How?” Jessica chuckled, a little bit of lunacy creeping in.  
“Cuz I just used my only way inta' the house ta get ya out. Now I gotta find a new way to sneak in.”  
It hadn't occurred to Jessica that Zoe was apart from the family. When she hadn't seen her at the table she thought maybe the youngest Baker was dead or holed up with Evie playing whatever it was psycho children like to play. But Zoe had been elsewhere with little fractions of the keys to the house so that the Bakers were never fully in control of who came in or out. Jessica imagined Zoe sneaking in for food, hopefully not the people kind, or to get supplies. But there wasn't enough time to throw them back into the backpack she wore, the emblems were left in their rightful place as they rushed arm in arm into the front yard.

The trailer was still there. A little more broken down but the light on inside lifted Jessica's spirits. 

Heavy footsteps were subsequently gaining on them. “Fuck they're comin'!” The two women were forced to jumped down the small set of stairs on the porch rather than wrestle Jessica down them. Unfortunately she landed on both her feet and accidentally placed all the force of the fall onto her injured leg. Jessica dropped like a sack of potatoes and immediately hugged her leg to her chest.  
“Jess c'mon!”  
She shook her head. “No, no go without me. I'll only slow you down.”  
Zoe looked between her and the front door seemingly considering it. “You already is. Now suck'it the fuck up!” She didn't have inhuman strength but little thin Zoe pulled Jessica up from under the arms and walked backwards, dragging her along the grass.   
She got a full view of Lucas running towards them faster than humanly possible. “Oh God, Zoe!”  
“I know!”  
Zoe tossed Jessica up into the open trailer and kicked her over with her foot so she could slam the door shut. Lucas was already there trying to wedge himself inside. Brother and sister slammed themselves on either side of the flimsy trailer door and shoved it with everything they had.

“Give'er back Zoe! She's mine!”  
“I can't believe ya Lucas!” Jessica watched them go to war, it turned out to be the most morbid thing she'd seen since she got here. That Lucas could look so hateful of his own sister, covered in blood and moonlight. So unfamiliar to Jessica who felt like she'd known him better than she'd known herself.  
Zoe used the counter behind her for leverage but Lucas was resisting her with pure strength. “How could ya bring'er inta' this?”  
Lucas stared down at Jessica from the wedge in the door. With his hood up and his face twisted in rage she felt afraid of him for the first time.  
“Shut yo mouth bitch!” He was winning. Zoe hadn't inherited the strength from Eveline or any telling abilities. “Mind ya fuckin' business and give'er back to me now!”

Jessica sat up and scooted her body toward the door. She put her back to it and braced her good leg against the bottom of the counter. If she didn't help Zoe fast Lucas was going to get in. As injured as she was Jessica would not have been able to fight him off. Her knee throbbed and what came next would only make it worse however it was fight or flight, and Jessica had found her wings.  
_Sorry Lucas but seriously fuck you._  
She pushed her back against the door so that she stood as a barrier, no matter how hard he pushed he couldn't get the door open all the way. Realizing that he was losing the advantage Lucas pushed even harder, throwing himself up against the door. He made grotesque sounds from the other side, half cackling half growling. The two women started to lose their edge as quickly as they got it.  
Jessica quickly made the choice to take it a step further. She was gonna regret this and she knew it but there was no time. If Lucas got in...he could hurt Zoe if not both of them. That look in his eyes made her was akin to bloodlust.   
Jessica straightened her injured leg until it was parallel to the other. With one blinding heave she pushed herself back with both legs, screaming at the top of her lungs as pain shot through her whole body. She had almost passed out before hearing the trailer door shut and Zoe lock it down.   
Everything became serenely quiet for a moment. Zoe pressed her ear against the door and waited until she felt confident enough move away. She stepped back warily and knelt down beside Jessica. 

“Goddamn girl. Yer tougher than I thought.”  
Cringing her way towards a smile Jessica looked down at her leg. It didn't look any worse but it sure fucking felt like it. “Adrenaline helped.”

Zoe bent down and started to help Jessica to her feet but the trailer suddenly tilted to one side sending the two women and everything around them to the floor. Outside the trailer Lucas was pushing up against the side displaying monstrous strength, his thin body colliding into the steel walls like a wrecking ball. Jessica and Zoe clung to one another and tried to brace themselves for when the whole damn thing tipped over with them inside. 

-

The trailer rocked back and forth like tin can cradle. Lucas Baker yipped and hollered maliciously with every swing. It threatened to topple onto one side, tires tipping back to reveal the underside, but he wasn't trying to kill them, oh no. He just wanted to scare them.  
“Aw c'mon girls lem'me in! I jus' wanna talk! Or iss'it no boys allowed?”  
From within Zoe and Jessica screamed, rattling around with all his sister's junk like a present.  
_Merry fuckin' Christmas ta me! Wond'a what's inside!_

Lucas drew back and watched the trailer pop back straight on its tires. No doubt the inside was a fucking mess. But that's what Zoe deserved trying to swoop in and play super hero. Who the fuck did she think she was, Mary Poppins? Two years of slinking around like a goddamn rat and now she decided to cause trouble?   
_Of all the goddamn times, she had'ta take Jess._   
Lucas waited until the rumpled red shade lifted and a little eye peeked out at him from the corner. He couldn't tell whether it was Zoe or Jessica but due to the knife wound in her knee he assumed his sister was the only one who could have gotten there so fast.   
He grinned ear to ear, blood caked across his face from his fight with Jack. “That's 'aight Zoe! Ya thinkin' yer real fuckin' clever, eh?” Lucas tipped his head up and bared his blood stained teeth. “Watch what I do ta ya!”

Lucas turned and stalked away from the trailer leaving them to their little sleepover. It didn't matter what Zoe said. She could poison Jessy against him until she was black and blue but at the end of the day Evie was inside Jessica's head. That little bitch would creep in as soon as possible and make her strangle the life outta Zoe.   
_Then she'll come back ta me'n we can make Zoe inta' a nice lil moldy fuck._  
Back inside the house Jack was still laying on the kitchen floor where Lucas had left him, the knife used on Jessica gouged into his eye. His mama was pacing around whispering like a nut, nothing Lucas could make out.  
But sitting at the table serenely as though nothing was amiss was Eveline. She swung her legs back and forth, too short to touch the floor, and hummed that little tune of hers. Go tell Aunt Rhody that everybody's dead.

“What happened big brother?”  
Lucas jammed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. “Zoe.”  
The withered child nodded absently. “She took my new sister?”  
“Yep, ya should kill'er ya know.”  
“No. I don't think I will.”  
Lucas shifted uncomfortably. He may have been out of Evie's control but the organization hadn't told him whether or not she could still kill him. He'd seen the way the bodies of those poor bastards went to stone, crumbling like autumn leaves in the wind. Lucas was happy to kiss her ass if it meant she didn't do that to him. If she ever found out what he was up to in the salt mines she'd have tried to do it for sure. “Why's that?”  
“She is family.”  
The kid didn't make a lick of fucking sense. Maybe Zoe got a free pass to fuck around because she was a Baker and apart of the original family. Could an engineered weapon have sentiments? It didn't matter. The bitch was gonna live one way or another. Same reason Mia wasn't a heap of dust down in the cell.  
Lucas stared down at his father who began to stir. He didn't want to be around for when he woke up.   
“I'm goin' ta the barn. Need'ta figure some stuff out.”  
Except he wasn't going to the barn at all. Lucas ducked his head down, pulled the hood up so it shadowed his smile, and made his way out the front door. He gave the trailer a lasting look hoping to get a glimpse of Jessica. 

Back into the guest house and through his latest hidden passage, Lucas Baker entered the salt mines. Two bloated molders stood idle and ignored him as he bypassed right between them. They ambled mindlessly in a miniature sway, without a prey to spew their vomit at they didn't really have much else to do. He'd set them up as a trap in case someone found his hideout. Especially his sister or a captive, his parents didn't go nosing around and Evie didn't know about this place.

Lucas entered through the back of the lab because he'd rigged the front end with so many explosives even he had forgotten where half of them were set. There were stakes to playing this game and by fucking God he had never lost in his life. He refused to be outsmarted by someone even if they were clever enough to find the mines and the secrets hidden within.  
Lucas sat down in his computer chair and opened the laptop. While he waited for it to boot up he kicked the side of his foot against the creepy steel case containing one of Evie's failed siblings. Lucas had looked inside once and regretted it. The fetus husk looked like something out of a bad B-movie. As far as he'd known all these companies making monsters and shit used viruses. At what point did they start messing with spores, mold and making child weapons?  
_Guess that market done changed_ , he thought to himself with a sour look on his face, _people don't want zombies'n mutants anymo'. They want sumthin' stronger they can control._

On the desktop a little blinking icon flashed along the taskbar. Lucas clicked it and read the message within.

**X:** Update on subject E-001  
**LB:** She wastin away still. Used her power to convert another earlier and was tired less than 30mins

X began to type. Lucas stared at the ellipses pop up 1-2-3 then disappear as he or she wrote on the other end. He'd never heard their voices so there was no telling who he was talking to. The day he'd gotten a message via his laptop in the attic it had been just like this. X coming to offer him power and freedom. Lucas considered that at the end of this whoever these people were might either gun down him and his family or take them into to be experimented on. But Lucas thought himself too smart to be caught by anyone.

**X:** If E-001 deteriorates further her influence on the mind of her victims will increase. Your movements will need to be more calculated. We suggest you inform us of changes when necessary instead of using our prearranged cycle.  
**LB:** Why dont you just give her the serum to stop it  
**X:** We understand how to recreate the E-Series specimen. E-001 has one use.

_Ta tell ya'll what happens when she goes without her meds._  
For better or worse the organization behind Eveline was going to let her turn to dust just to see if she would. Whatever hell Dulvey suffered at the hands of Evie going mental, spreading her mold further on out, was not their concern. No one would know where the kid came from, not even Lucas.  
It was about time to ask for that favor.

**LB:** Fine by me.   
**LB:** So ya know I been helping yall for some time now  
**X:** Is there something you require  
**LB:** I want another one a those things ya gave me to fix my head  
**LB:** I'll level wit ya. The person Evie used her shit on was someone I know  
**X:** That is not our concern   
**LB:** Oh but it is. Yall fuckin need me. But I dont need ya anymore. I could take Evie and go dark. Or leave myself and then who ya gonna get info from? 

The dots popped up again but Lucas felt confident he'd gotten his point across. These assholes didn't have anyone, he had all the power. He would never run off with Evie, Lucas just wasn't the babysitting type. But with the 'gift' and detachment from the hive mind Lucas was a walking tyrant. Not only would they lose data on their experiment but they'd be setting him free.

**X:** Understood. A drop off will be left in the cabin outside the salt mines in one week.

One week? Could be worse.

**LB:** Thank ya plenty partners

Lucas shut the laptop and stretched. It was highly likely that Jessica would succumb to Eveline's influence in the span of a week. But whatever the juice they'd given him was, it had undone a years worth of crazy. Although one could say it had also released the beast dwelling inside him. Caged by his ribs and chained down by petty morals. Lucas hated Eveline but he wasn't lying when he said he didn't regret finding her and Mia.   
Before the gift Lucas had killed people, he'd been violent and out of control but there was always something holding him back.   
Himself.  
To scrawny to fight back, to weak to do what he pleased. Years of Jack beating on him and Zoe teasing Lucas had made him feel...less than human. The only two people who had made him feel like he mattered was his Mama and Jessica. But even Marguerite's love shamed him. As though he needed his mother to protect him, pulled close to her bosom like some sissy.  
But Jessy...

No, she had pushed him down too. It was so subtle that he hadn't realized it until tonight. She had treated him equal, like he wasn't fucked in the head. But she'd always tried to shelter him from the assholes in school who liked to pick on him. As human as Jessica made Lucas feel, her love had held him back.   
_I am...I'm not like her'er any of 'em...I was never human. I'm...better._  
The gift had brought out what had been held down inside him all this time. The beast without a name hungry for blood and flesh. A demon made of shadows who stretched across walls snatching up the unsuspecting and fearful. The mastermind who took scraps of nothing to create instruments of torment and agony.   
Lucas shed his former mold to become who he was always meant to be. And God was he excited for Jessica too see it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have made Lucas a little bit of a cannibal. So sue me. I kind of always pegged him for one anyways. Don't worry the smut is coming soon, I'm still gearing up to it so it makes sense.

**Author's Note:**

> I know what you're thinking: Where is the sex and Lucas POV? Well don't worry I'm getting to it. I started this out as a smut fic and really that is still what it is deep down. But I got so caught up in the story and drawing out those darkly intimate scenes that I hope when they do come they're...better? Regardless here it is, chapter one of BTD.  
> Craig and Nadine are both names off the turned/dead/L list and I take a few liberties on the events up to this point throughout the first few chapters. I did a crap ton of research so fingers crossed I don't add in something utterly non-canon.  
> Again thank you everyone who reads my stories and gives me feedback, it is so appreciated.


End file.
